1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of networking. More specifically, the invention relates to the automatic configuration of addresses within a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of computers and other electronic devices (e.g., fax machines, network-compatible video game consoles, Internet-ready televisions and radios, video cameras and displays, etc.) in the home and the office continues to grow. For example, businesses use these devices to quickly gather, process and distribute information. This allows their employees to easily access and share information with other employees regardless of their location. As another example, individuals use these devices to access the Internet and to communicate with people all across the world through the use of email and other applications. As a result of this increasing use, the demand for networks interconnecting the devices and providing communications between the devices also continues to grow. Today's networks are capable of connecting devices which are next to each other on a desk as well as devices which are separated by thousands of miles.
Sophisticated networks typically do not make direct point to point connections between individual devices. In other words, if a computer in New York desires to communicate with a computer in San Francisco, the network connection typically is not a permanent, dedicated line from one computer to the other. Instead, the network typically includes a number of interconnected nodes, often organized in a hierarchical fashion, and communications passes through the nodes. For example, in packet-based networks, messages are divided into packets, each of which makes its way from the New York computer through the network nodes to the San Francisco computer.
As the network grows, the number of nodes in the network increases and the distance between nodes on opposite ends of the network also increases. As a result, it becomes more difficult to manage the network. For example, one step in managing a network is to assign addresses to nodes within the network. In many networks, part or all of the assignment of addresses is performed manually; a network administrator or some other individual manually assigns addresses to the nodes in the network and/or manages the addressing in the nodes. If nodes are added to or removed from the network, either intentionally or by equipment failure, the administrator generally must manually update the addressing in the network.
One example of a network is the Internet, which connects millions of computers together and facilitates the sharing of information across the globe. As the Internet continues to grow, the Internet Protocol (IP) is becoming a de facto standard for networking protocols. As a result, many applications are being developed for IP networks. However, the IP protocol is a public network protocol that is used in networks consisting of a large number of nodes.
In order to manage these nodes, network administrators and servers are used to manage groups of nodes. The network administrators set up the addressing in the nodes, create subnets and handle the general organization of the nodes. The servers store addressing information about the network as a whole. By storing the addressing information in a server, the nodes in the network can access the server to obtain addressing information and thus do not have to store the addressing information in each node. This significantly reduces the amount of storage needed in each node, as the address tables are quite large for networks that contain a large number of nodes. However, it also introduces a single point of failure in the network since the nodes will not operate correctly if the server is inoperable.
For smaller, self-contained or private networks, the traditional approach to IP configuration and management is not efficient. When a network only contains a small number of nodes, a server is not required since each node can easily store the addressing information for each of the other nodes in the network. In addition, if the nodes are separated by large distances, it is be beneficial for the network to operate without requiring manual intervention by a network administrator. However, due to the large number of applications written for IP networks and the widespread use of IP, it is beneficial to use the IP protocol in these small, private, self-contained networks. For example, Kestrel Solutions, based in Mountain View, Calif., provides products that can be configured to provide high-speed metropolitan area network (MAN) backbones. These products are typically configured in private networks with relatively few number of nodes located large distances from one another. It is desirable to use the IP protocol with these products, however, the management overhead associated with IP networks is undesirable.
What is needed is an approach to automatically assign addresses to nodes in a network that does not require input by users or network administrators. The approach preferably also automatically updates the assignment of addresses as nodes are added to or removed from the network.